


Make A Change

by stormoftara



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Drama, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pink Diamond Support Group the fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormoftara/pseuds/stormoftara
Summary: Spinel decides to stay on Earth





	1. Making A Decision

The ocean waters calmly rolled in against the sand before receding back. Spinel looked down at the water, watching her own reflection waver with the waves. All this time she hadn't gotten a good look at exactly how much she had changed.

Her eyes were darker, underlined with black that streaked down her cheeks like tears. Her hair was wilder and no longer looked like cute hearts. Her gemstone had flipped upside as if to scream to the world that her own heart had been shattered.

Spinel looked like a monster. A monster born from raging emotions of betrayal and revenge. Seeing that image staring back at her from the water made her only feel revulsion towards herself. Had she really made the right decision about staying on Earth? Was there any way for someone like her to fix her mistakes? The slightly tinged pink water seemed to mock her. Spinel had caused so much damage. Was that even something that she could redeem?

Her mind went back to the moment she had decided to stay on Earth, the moment that she hoped she had made the right decision.

* * *

"Let us adore you!" Yellow, Blue, and White Diamond all offered their hands down towards Spinel as they bent down in the wreckage of injector's explosion. The explosion that Spinel had caused.

Spinel turned to look at Steven. He gave her a thumbs up. "I mean, they might not be the easiest to get along with, but-" Steven gave a small shrug.

Ah. This was her chance. An opportunity to make friends for real. Ones that she hadn't messed up so completely with. They already loved her! They had a room waiting for her! The Diamonds would love her, no matter what, because she was Pink Diamond's Spinel.

But something didn't feel right. Spinel looked back at Steven's family and friends. His real friends that cared so much about him. They loved him for who he was. Not because he was Pink Diamond's son. That real care and compassion, the kind that took work, that's what Spinel wanted. Something more than just being loved with no effort put into it.

Besides, looking at the mess she had created, Spinel couldn't run away from all this. Isn't that what Pink Diamond had done? Just run away whenever things got hard? She had even left Spinel to rot in the garden rather than confront her. Spinel didn't want to be like that.

She wanted, no she needed to be worthy of friendship. And at the moment she was really far from that. It would take hard work, but she had to try. Spinel wanted to change, just like Steven. This time she was going to change for the better instead of for the worse.

"I can make a change."

"Huh?" Steven looked at her with his eyebrows lifted. "Spinel?"

Spinel turned towards the Diamonds and bowed. "I'm sorry my Diamonds, but I want to stay here on Earth."

White Diamond stood back up, shaking her head. "What? Why do you want to stay here? It's awful here. Just come with us."

Yeah, well that was her fault. But before she could say anything, Blue stood up and put a hand on White's shoulder. "We can't force her to do anything. We'll just end up pushing her away like we did with Pink Diamond."

White looked down at Spinel and sighed. "If that's what you really want, then so be it. I think we should get back to Homeworld now, actually." White scrunched her face up with obvious disgust at the planet around her.

"I'll come visit soon!" Steven shouted, grinning up at his gem family.

"Yes, please do." Blue waved at him as the three Diamonds made their way back to the spaceship.

"Wow Spinel, I thought for sure you'd want to go with them." Steven smiled at her. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure." Spinel nervously laughed. "But I think I'll start with helping you clean up this mess."

"Thanks Spinel." Steven clapped a hand on her back. "Actually, since you brought the biopoison here, do you know a better way to clean it up than me just kissing everything?"

Spinel nodded. "Yeah. Maybe we should have a meeting about this with the other gems and I'll tell you everything I know."

Spinel gathered with everyone in Little Homeworld where the majority of Beach City was gathered considering the rest of the city was uninhabitable. She felt slightly uncomfortable standing in front of all the people she had hurt, but this was the first step. She had to take responsibility for her actions.

Peridot was standing next to Lapis, tapping her foot as she looked down at her tablet. "This is bad, with the accelerated release of the biopoison, the Earth has only a few more hours before everything is destroyed!"

"Huh?" Spinel stretched her leg and snapped her body so she was standing next to Peridot. Looking at her tablet, which was just a mess of numbers, didn't really help her understand. "But I didn't bring enough biopoison to destroy the whole Earth."

"What do you mean? All my data is absolutely correct!" Peridot shook the tablet around in her hands.

"Oh, actually." Lapis put her hand on the tablet to stop it from shaking. "I think you messed up the dimensions of the Earth."

"What?" Peridot squawked. She scrolled down on her tablet, her face suddenly going flush. "Well I just got confused! There are a lot of planets and-"

"Anyway." Pearl interrupted, walking towards the center of the group with Amethyst and Garnet. "I think we should focus on cleanup efforts for now." Several citizens of Beach City all nodded in agreement. "Spinel, if you could give up any information regarding that?"

"Yes!" Spinel sprang back towards the center so she could look at everyone more directly. For some reason everyone was being rather civil towards her despite her destructive behavior, but that might just be so they could get information from her… and then they would abandon her…

No! She had to stop thinking like that. If she really wanted to change then she had to stop being so negative. Then she could start earning friendships with the others. "Alright! So the biopoison is actually water dilutable! Your er, our planet has lots of water! So we just have to wash it away!" Spinel clapped her hands with glee.

"Oh, I can help with that!" Lapis raised her hand.

"I can help with rebuilding the roads!" Bismuth flexed one of her arms with a grin.

"Yeah! I can start healing the plant life. We can do it if we all work together!" Steven pumped an arm into the air. "Let's get to work guys!"

* * *

It had been hard work, but progress was made quickly. By the next night, Lapis had managed to wipe most of the biopoison into the sea. The others had started repairing the city. Spinel was glad that the damage wasn't too permanent. Of course the water from the ocean was still dyed pink, it would take some time before it completely went away. A reminder of what she had done.

Spinel bent down and placed a hand against her wavering reflection in the water. That distorted it even further. Now that things had calmed down, she had time to think. Looking at herself made her realize she didn't even know who she wanted to be anymore. A fun happy Spinel? Like before? Could she return to that? Who even was she?

Spinel splashed the water sending drops scattering. Changing was hard work and she didn't know how to do it. Would she ever be worthy of friendship? Maybe she should have just gone with the Diamonds and pretended that was okay. Maybe…

A flapping noise made Spinel turn her head. On the beach behind her was Lapis, her water wings spread out as she landed on the sand. She gave Spinel a small smile. "Hey, let's have a chat, okay?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot holes?
> 
> i see 'em.
> 
> i fill 'em
> 
> Follow my twitter @stormoftara !! For update news and me crying!!


	2. Taking A Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spinel has a conversation with Lapis

"Weee!!" Spinel spread her arms out to her sides, feeling the wind brush past her face. She kicked her legs back and forth as she giggled. Flying was so much fun!

"Careful Spinel, don't fidget too much, I don't want to drop you." Lapis laughed as she readjusted her hands to get a better hold on her.

"Okay!" Spinel wasn't exactly thrilled with being told to stay still, like before, in the garden, but she wasn't really staying still at all! She was flying! So it was okay. Besides, seeing the clouds above illuminated by the pink of the setting sun was so pretty. It was hard to take her eyes off it. Here on Earth, the sky was so amazing. It turned so many different colors as the sun dropped lower on the horizon.

Oh, but pink. Spinel felt a pinch in her heart as she focused downwards instead at the pink ocean. The biopoison had spread further than she thought. It wouldn't hurt anything living in the ocean, but that color reminded her of all her mistakes again. Did she even deserve to have fun flying with Lapis when she had caused so many problems? Problems she hadn't even finished fixing yet?

"You okay, Spinel?" Lapis asked, seeing her change in demeanor.

"Yeah. I'm just." Spinel sighed, watching the water below speed past. "Do I even deserve to have fun? Look at everything I caused!"

"Oh man." Lapis chuckled in a self-aggrandizing way. "You sound just like me a few years ago. Hey, let's land and have a chat."

"Land? Land where?" There was nothing but ocean out here.

"Watch this!"

Lapis hooked an arm under Spinel and held out a hand in front of her as she slowed her flight to a hover. In front of them, a large pillar of water started to rise up from the ocean, sparkling pink in the setting sun. The pillar rose up what must've been about a hundred feet, the top flat and calm. Lapis flew down, placing Spinel on the ground before landing herself.

"Woah!" Spinel bent down to inspect the water, placing a hand against it and finding it just bounced back. She then tried her feet, finding the same reaction. It was so bouncy! She jumped up and down a few times, "This is amazing, Lapis!"

"Yeah. I'm pretty great." Lapis gave a small wave with her hand. "C'mon, sit down. I'll tell you a story."

"Okay!" Midjump, Spinel crossed her legs and landed on the water's surface. It was so jiggly! Honestly she wanted to play more, but listening to others! That's what friends did! Right? Spinel was pretty sure. “But are you sure this is okay? Shouldn’t we be back at the beach helping everyone clean up?”

“Yeah, well that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.” Lapis sat down, her wings vanishing from sight. “So how much do you know about the gem war here on Earth?”

Spinel tapped a finger to her chin. “Just what the transmission from the Diamonds and Steven said.” Which wasn’t much to go by. Something about Pink going to Earth and then making Steven. Somehow? And umm… Spinel felt like she was probably missing a big piece of the puzzle, but she wasn’t sure what.

“There was a big war. And it was pretty much all Pink Diamond’s fault. I mean that in more ways than one.” From the water in front of Lapis, she pulled up a figure that looked just like Pink Diamond. Spinel flinched back slightly, even if the water was just an echo of Pink’s former self, seeing her again made her mind feel all… strange. Maybe a little angry? Maybe a little afraid. But it couldn’t hurt her. It was just water.

“When Pink Diamond came to Earth, she fell in love with the planet and didn’t want to use up all the resources here and destroy it.” Lapis continued. “She begged the Diamonds to stop, but they wouldn’t listen to her. So Pink Diamond came up with a plan.”

The water Pink Diamond’s shape shifted into that of a Rose Quartz. Spinel’s eyes went wide.

“She decided to fight a war, taking both sides. Pink Diamond against Rose Quartz, the rebel. But fighting a war against herself could only end in defeat, one way or another. So she staged her own shattering.”

Lapis splashed the Rose Quartz shape down and brought up one of Pink Diamond and Pearl. “Pink Diamond asked Pearl to shapeshift into Rose Quartz.” The water Pearl changed into Rose Quartz. Spinel watched with her eyes even wider as the pretend Rose Quartz stuck a sword into Pink Diamond, the water all splashing down back into the water pillar.

“What?” Spinel wasn’t sure what to do with this new information. It felt like a lot to process all at once. What did all this mean? Why had Pink Diamond done all this? Surely there was a better way?

“Sorry, is this a bit much?” Lapis made the other figure disappear, merging back into the pink sea water. “Well I think it’s important for you to know. Because after that, well the rest of the Diamonds decided to destroy all the gems on Earth. Unfortunately they couldn’t quite do that without Pink’s power, and ended up corrupting all the gems instead. Well, except for the Rose Quartz and her Crystal Gems, because they were protected by Pink’s shield.”

“Oh.” Spinel looked down at the water, seeing her own twisted reflection again. Honestly, knowing all this didn’t make her feel much better. Maybe worse. Pink Diamond had done so much without her. If Spinel had been there, would things have turned out differently? Not that she supposed it mattered much anymore. “But what about you Lapis?”

“Right, I was actually poofed before the end of the war and my gem was broken, so I couldn’t reform. I guess they… assumed I wasn’t in there anymore because they used my gem to power a mirror.” Lapis frowned, looking down at the water herself. “They left me in there for thousands of years. The Crystal Gems had to know I was there but they just left me. It wasn’t until Steven found me that I was finally released from that prison.”

Spinel looked down at Lapis’s reflection in the water. Her face was distorted by the water but it was obviously full of anger. That story. It was so similar to what happened to Spinel herself. So… the actions of Pink Diamond really had hurt a lot of people, not just Spinel. “I’m sorry, Lapis.”

“It’s okay. I’ve gotten over it, mostly.” Lapis picked her head up and smiled again. “But that’s really what I wanted to talk to you about. I was in a position really similar to you. After I was released from the mirror, I went a bit crazy and tried to gather all the water on Earth to make a pillar into space.” Lapis chuckled lightly, rubbing one of her arms.

“Why’d you do that?” Spinel patted the water underneath her again. Lapis must be pretty strong if she could take all the water on the whole planet and make it into one pillar.

“Well,” Lapis sighed, “I was trying to get back to homeworld. I hated the Crystal Gems and I wanted to get far away from them. I didn’t think anything through. I just wanted to run away so badly. I was so scared. But that’s why I think,” Lapis turned towards Spinel with a smile, “That you need a little break to have some fun and so you don't get overwhelmed with your emotions again.”

“Oh.” Well considering how long it took for Spinel to calm down enough to listen to Steven in the first place, maybe Lapis was right. “But I want to finish cleaning up after all that mess I made.”

“Humans sleep at night, so this is a good time to take a break anyway.” Lapis pointed up at the darkening sky above, which had faded from pink to a dark violet. “Why don’t we just relax and have fun for a bit, look at the stars, forget about all the crummy stuff that happened to us in the past?”

“Okay.” Spinel smiled back at Lapis. It might be good to take a break. So much had happened in such a short time, from her finding out that Pink Diamond had abandoned her to her going to Earth in just a matter of hours. It had all happened in a revenge fueled burst of energy, which meant that Spinel hadn’t had much time to think about anything. Lapis was right. This was a good chance to just process some of the things she had been through and relax a little after all the chaos.

She leaned back on the water, feeling the coolness of it against her back. The sky above was twinkling with stars, but it felt so different from the ones she had seen back in the garden. The ones she had watched for thousands of years. These felt so much brighter.

Maybe, making new friends wouldn’t be as hard as she thought. Spinel looked at Lapis, who had closed her eyes and leaned back against the water as well. Maybe, just maybe, she had already made one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out and it's so short hdfjsdlk;ja
> 
> I'll do my best to get the next part out quicker!


	3. Outline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I lost motivation to finish this. I haven't even seen Steven Universe Future, actually. In any case I didn't want to leave you all hanging with an unfinished fic, so I will post my outline of the rest of the story. I'm sorry!

After having fun, Spinel decides it's time to help out and rebuild the city. She helps with her stretchy limbs. It feels good to be using her powers to create instead of destroy, but she feels guilty still. She's the one who caused the chaos. 

During a break, Pearl talks about Pink maybe leaving Spinel behind because of war. Didn't want to involve her and get her hurt. Spinel wonders why she didn't come back. Pearl said that the warps might've broken. Then she suddenly apologizes. She doesn't want to keep justifying Pink's actions, but she can't help herself. Even if Pink did bad, Pearl wants to see the good side of her. This leaves Spinel with a lot to think about. How many gems did Pink hurt?

Bismuth is making steel things for the city. (What are they called? Beams?) She requests Spinel's help. Actually she wanted a chance to talk with her.

Bismuth tells Spinel that she was put in bubble for years, and she doesn't forgive Pink for what she did.. Spinel doesn't have to either. Pink is gone now so she doesn't have to hold onto anger anymore either, but it's okay to still be angry. Bismuth talks about how she let's her anger out by building. Spinel wonders if there is a way to let her anger out in a productive way.

Spinel wonders if she is worthy of making friends now. Talk with Garnet and Amethyst about it. Garnet tells her that you don't really earn friends. Just trying to change means you are changing already. Amethyst talks about how she had self esteem issues too. It's okay to take her time, but she thinks they are already friends.

The city is rebuilt. Spinel wonders what her place is now that she made up for her mistakes. There is a concert with Sadie, celebrating the city's completion. 

Spinel goes to the concert. She loves the music. She talks with Sadie after the show. Talks about her feelings and how she doesnt know what to do now. Sadie says she can make music too. Spinel laughs, maybe everything can be solved with a song. Not literally, but it would be good to get her emotions out.

Later she puts on her own concert for those who were hurt by Pink. That none of them have to feel alone anymore. She feels accepted and that she has finally changed for the better. 

The End 


End file.
